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A34849 A discourse of the covenants that God made with men before the law wherein the covenant of circumcision is more largely handled, and the invalidity of the plea for pædobaptism taken from thence discovered / by Nehemiah Coxe. Coxe, Nehemiah. 1681 (1681) Wing C6717; ESTC R7196 96,812 205

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for the most part as shadowed and figured by outward things And hence That which concerns the State of Israel under the Mosaical Oeconomy is more expresly and fully declared unto Abraham than what concerns his spiritual Seed under the Gospel And therefore tho' this latter be the chief thing intended and aimed at because the perfection of all the rest in all divine Transactions with Abraham yet is it for the most part mystically infolded in and to be inferred from the typical Respect of the other thereunto which leaves the Glory of Gospel-grace still under that Vail which accompanied the Old Testament-state of the Church the full opening of those Promises that did immediately belong to the Covenant of Grace being reserved for another State of things in the Church God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect Heb. 11. 40. A dim Light was suited to those Times and it could be but dim so long as the Promises lay so much intangled one within another The like is to be observed in After-times in the Revelation of the Mind of God to Israel by the Prophets For in the prophetick Writings as it appears that the temporal Deliverances of Israel are considered as typical of the spiritual Redemption of the Church so we often meet with sudden and seemingly abrupt Transitions from the Promises of things relating to the present State of Israel after the Flesh unto Promises and Prophecies of those things which are accomplished in the New-Testament by the Ministration of the Spirit which being generally delivered in Terms suitable to the present Dispensation of things and their typical Respect are by the Jews wofully perverted unto this day while they contend that themselves are the only People concerned in them to whom the Blessings promised and prophesied of do belong and that they are to be fulfilled unto them in a way agrecable to their former State and suited to their own carnal Lusts and Imaginations whereby they harden themselves in their Contempt of the Grace of God in Christ and the spiritual Blessings of the Gospel wherein the Accomplishment of those Prophecies according to the true Sence of them is only to be sought And thus Jesus Christ himself became a Stone of stumbling and Rock of Offence to them because the State of his Kingdom suited not their carnal Minds nor answered their groundless Expectation § 3. It is also to be observed That there is not only a singular Congruity and Fitness in this Method of giving forth the Promises in regard of the Time wherein they were made to Abraham and that State of the Church which was next to follow upon these Transactions but there is also in some respect a Necessity of it arising from the Nature of the things promised and their mutual Dependence one upon the other For All the Promises of a spiritual Seed and spiritual Blessings to be bestowed on that Seed which belong to the Covenant of Grace as revealed to Abraham are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus And this Messiah in whom the Covenant was confirmed was to be made of the Seed of Abraham according to the Flesh and for the bringing of him forth according to the Promise was the Seed of Abraham by Isaac and Jacob separated unto God for a peculiar People and kept distinct from all other Families in the World and in this respect the Blessing of Grace and eternal Life given unto Abraham and his believing Seed was suspended upon the Effect and Accomplishment of the Promises concerning his natural Offspring and particularly upon the Promise of Isaac's Birth who was to be begotten by Abraham and brought forth by Sarah at such a time when Nature in them both was so weakned by Age that they were as unapt he to beget and she to conceive a Son as if they had been already dead Rom. 4. 19. And hence it is that the Apostle doth lay so great Weight upon Abraham's Faith in this Particular even in the Business of his Justification before God The Object of justifying Faith the Messiah to come being thus included in the Promise of Isaac's Birth On this account his Parents had the greatest Cause of rejoycing at the Birth of this Son who hath his Name from Laughter and Rejoycing Gen. 17. 17. and Chap. 21. And to this in part may be referred the saying of our Saviour Abraham rejoyced to see my Day and he saw it and was glad Joh. 8. 56. He saw it in the Birth of Isaac and afterwards in the offering of him up who was a Type of Christ and from whom he was to come whose miraculous Birth in the virtue of a Promise when Nature could not have effected it afforded also some Adumbration of and was a Praeludium to the more miraculous Birth of Christ who was conceived and brought forth by a pure Virgin the Power of the most High overshadowing her for the fufilling of that Promise The Seed of the Woman shall break the Head of the Serpent As Isaac in the Type so Christ more eminently sprang up as a Root out of a dry Ground Isa 53. § 4. Now from these things we may collect with Ease and great Clearness wherein the Greatness of Abraham's Tryal and the Eminency of his Faith in offering up Isaac did specially consist To part with a Son an obedient Son a Son grown up as Isaac now was yea an only Son was indeed a great Tryal howbeit Abraham was not only required to part with him but to sacrifice him and for a Father to become the Executioner of his Son the Son of his old Age and the Object of his most endeared Affections for him I say to be appointed the Priest that must slay this Victime adds yet much more to the Tryal And in Abraham's addressing himself to such a Service had there been no more in it without Debate murmuring or delay we have an unparallell'd Instance and Example of Piety and Obedience But alas There is a Concern infinitely greater in this Case than all that hath been yet mentioned Isaac was the Son of the Promise And upon this account the Holy Ghost places it he that had received the Promises offered up his only begotten Son Of whom it was said in Isaac shall thy Seed be called Heb. 11. 17 18. Abraham had no other Son in whom he might expect the fulfilling of the Promise when Isaac was lost and yet upon the Accomplishment of this Promise in the bringing forth of the Messiah in Isaac's Line the eternal Salvation of Abraham and of the whole Church depended and therefore he is called his only begotten not because Abraham had no other Son but because he was the only H●ir of the Promise This might have caused the greatest Anxiety of Mind imaginable in Abraham had he at all consulted with Flesh and Blood in the case but his Faith overcame this Difficulty and silenced all carnal Reasonings about the Impossibility of the Accomplishment of the